What is a normal headache? I hear it all the time from new patients. There are migraine headaches, tension headaches, cluster headaches, sinus headaches, hormone headaches and cervicogenic headaches but I have yet to understand what a normal headache is. I don’t think they exist.
In all seriousness, a headache is never normal. I would venture to say that most people have experienced a headache but that doesn’t make it normal. So, if you suffer from headaches then you need to pay attention.
According to some studies, 70% of all headaches are actually cervicogenic, which is a fancy way of saying that the pain is caused by dysfunction in the neck. I would concur based on the number of people I have personally helped overcome headaches by working on the neck. All of the other headaches can either be triggered by neck problems or at least made worse.
Whatever the cause of the headache it should not just be written off. Pain is an indicator for dysfunction. If you have pain you can assume something is wrong. The true goal of health care is not to take away the pain but to get the pain to go away by correcting the dysfunction. Identifying the reason you are getting headaches and then working to correct it is the normal thing to do.
***Photo by Carolina Heza on Unsplash